Gravity Or Something
by typeos
Summary: She doesn't see him coming, which is kinda pathetic considering she spent a good year of her life watching him.
1. Chapter 1

Mindy Park does not meet Mark Watney, the man who she has spent a long, long year of her life watching over, on the day of his return to earth.

She isn't forbidden to meet him or anything like that, in fact Venkat had been insistent that she, the person who actually realized mark was alive should probably say hi at the very least.

She needed time to herself, time to disassociate from her life that was martian baby sitter and return to her original state.

It's strange, but definitely better. The number of times she has had nightmares of him dying is too damn high. The awkwardness of having to introduce herself as his outer space stalker would be something she didn't need either.

She celebrates when he returns of course. He has his fellow space people and family, heck the whole world even. She could safely fade into the background doing NASA things (staring at pictures of space ) while wishing him all the the best.

Life goes on and she never sees him for the whole first few weeks of his return

Instead she meets him fifteen something sols later

She's on her way to get some much needed coffee when it happens. Dead on her feet, she exchanges her sloppy ponytail for a hopefully more decent bun. Her glasses hanging on the collar of her oversized sweater. The one with a decent number of coffee stains. (She wasn't exactly the picture of grace and sophistication but she was running on mars time here, cut her some slack!)

It was of course during this very moment that Mark Watney decided to materialize out of nowhere.

Alright that was unfair of her, he was probably there the whole time and her blurry vision was too blame but whatever.

They bump into each other and it is of course nothing like the movies, no dramatic slow motion effect to signal the undoubtedly important moment that is meeting the dude who changed your life by almost dying on mars

She would like to congratulate the universe for conspiring to create this situation, one where she bumps into the person she has been stalking for a whole year because she didn't SEE him.

There are a few grunts of awkward surprise, her glasses manage to slip out of her collar but she manages to catch them in time. Jinkies.

"Oh,sorry!" He says, hands held up in apology " I didn't see you there."

He steps back from her quickly and she tries not to take offense and that, he's been through red Martiany hell. His hands in the air twitching.

It's in this moment, where she takes the sight of him in, him and not the plastered all over media face she usually sees, that she truly realizes what that despite being back from you know where, Mark Watney isn't okay yet, not really.

"Oh." She replies and because she doesn't want to break down in tears like the first time she realized he was alive so she presents him with her glasses. "You might need this more than I do."

It's a lame joke but it gets a little smile out of him and she can't help but feel a little proud of that.


	2. Chapter 2

Their first meeting had been brief due to the fact that he was actually on his way to a briefing.

Ha. Wordplay.

He smiled at her joke and she smiled in return. He apologized again and she told him it was fine and they did that weird nod in acknowledgement thing people do before going on their merry way.

She might have been a bit jittery after that but Mindy will defend her right to be damn giddy that her boy came home mostly safe and sound.

Okay, not her boy. Possessive much Mindy? Earth's boy maybe? Being involved first hand with the Bring Mark Home Squad sometimes makes her forget the whole fiasco was basically Mark Watney's long distance relationship with earth.

Then she had to go back to work and had shelved that interaction in some part of her brain.

Luckily she has new interns helping her out. Female interns , thank the outer space gods. Her male co workers were okay but sometimes a girl just wants to complain about cramps out loud without immature noises of disgust.

Interns who have no problem telling her what they want when she decides to get some food.

To be fair she did offer, and they were stuck doing most of the boring work so whatever.

Susan, one of the interns who forbids anyone from making suburban mom jokes with her name but begrudgingly allows Narnia ones, is discussing the wizarding world of harry potter with her on her phone while on this bagel run

Mindy didn't expect to be discussing the possibilities of space travel and portkeys while being told to buy whole wheat bagels by interns but one can never be too sure with NASA.

"Would wizards even be interested in space travel though? You'd think Hermione would." Mindy says out loud because she has to carry food back to her interns she can do what she wants. She isn't an expert in Harry Potter lore but she didn't recall the study of planets and stars besides their future telling properties a subject in Hogwarts.

She tells Susan this and the girl sends her some sort of shrugging emoji at her before she replies but someone interrupts her before she can read it

"Considering the fact that they still use quills and scrolls when at least one muggle born has to have introduced them to a pen and notebook?" Mark Watney approaches her with a friendly smile on his face. "Probably not, makes no sense if you ask me."

Mindy pauses at that, because she honestly never thought she would bump into Mark Watney again, and also he has a point.

"Why didn't they ever just enchant a quill to write without dipping it with ink anyway?" She questions.

"Why not figure out a spell that lets them write with their wands on paper?" Mark replies good naturedly."I saw The Chamber of Secrets, I saw young teenage heart throb Voldemort write his name in the air."

Mindy can't help but laugh at that, Mark gives a shrug as if to say 'wizards, what can you do.'

They stare at each other for a bit but luckily Mark introduces himself before things can get too awkward and how weird is it that this is the first time they've been formally introduced since she started spying on him.

"I'm Mark Watney by the way," He says with a small smile. "You know, the guy that ruined NASA's budget by getting stranded on Mars."

He says it with an air of nonchalance but even Mindy can see how it doesn't reach his eyes. This man has been through hell.

"Mindy Park from SatCon , space paparazzi. " She offers in return. " I would say it's nice bumping into you again, but I learned my lesson and have kept both eyes on the road since."

She can't believe she just said that but he snorts anyway so maybe it wasn't too bad.

"Space Paparazzi," He quirks an eyebrow at her " Taking pictures of the Stars all day?"

She makes a face because ugh, she walked right into that one.

"Well you are kind of a star now yourself." She says"Not to sound like an angry hipster but I did it before it was cool." and okay maybe bringing up his new found fame isn't the best idea considering how he earned it. She wasn't sure how to deal with him in a way that wasn't staring at pictures all day.

He looks at her funny and oh, right he doesn't know. She keeps forgetting she knows more about him then he knows her and ugh why does that sound so creepy.

"I'm the person who kind of found out you were still alive." She probably should have led up to that better but it was too late now. "Just staring at the right picture at the right time really, you know Google Mars, always taking pics."

He keeps looking at her but not in the same way and honestly she doesn't know how to deal with that but luckily he breaks out of it and smiles.

"I hope you sold those pictures for good money." He says.

"Enough to pay my student loans with." She replies. If only that were true.

Mark can probably tell what the look on her face means because he proceeds to strike a pose.

"Go on," he says deadpan "This one is worth at least a good million."

They stare at each other for a good few seconds before breaking into laughter.


	3. Chapter 3

"I know those old dime novels about alien civilizations on Mars aren't true." Lexi, one of the new interns groans out as they continue to look pictures of said planet. " But just once I'd like to see more than red rocks."

" I dunno, " Mindy contradicts, " I think I've had enough Mars related excitement in my life time."

She'll be content, ecstatic even, if she never has to space stalk another stranded astronaut in her life.

" Not even aliens with a decidedly Norse mythological flavor?" One of these days, Mindy is going to find out how Susan manages to say sentences like that while still sounding like she's talking about watching paint dry.

"Depends?" She says while going through pictures, "Are we talking about the Blonde Beefcake or Ice Ice Baby?"

"Why not both?" Mark joins in, leaning against the open door like he owns the place, and after the shit he went through Mindy wouldn't be surprised if NASA decided to give a paper that read "I can do whatever the hell I want" as a permit.

"And make that tense sibling dynamic even worse?" She retorts, her eyes not leaving her computer screen, in her peripheral she can see Lexi gaping but Susan, bless her, looks as unimpressed as ever."Not a chance bro."

"Ha ha." Mark deadpans at her "I see what you did there."

"And what brings you to our kingdom?" They've turned into some sort of Hallway Homies, they meet in the hall sometimes and nod at each other or if they aren't particularly busy, talk about things of no consequence and then say their good byes before doing whatever.

This however is a new development.

"I was just passing by," he says, she can hear his footsteps as he walks closer. "Figured I might as well say hi,try to mix things up a bit."

"What, the hallway not good enough for you?" She laughs and spins her chair to face him. Actually looking at him was probably an important step in developing a friendship.

Was this a developing friendship? Should she assume? How does one go about interacting with someone influential as Mark friggin Wattney.

When she looks at his face though, he looks a bit unsure himself, and Mindy berates herself for thinking of him as anything besides human.

You're Mark Wattney." Lexi says before he can reply and the girl means well but she's definitely the most enthusiastic one in the room.

"I'm sure he already knows that." Susan says, already going back to work.

Mark, bless him, rolls with it. " Reminders every now and then don't hurt."

"All right girls, settle down." She says, making a time out gesture with her hands. Something she's been doing a lot recently with these two. " Mark, meet Lexi and Susan."

Lexi gives and energetic wave from her spot, Susan glances up and throws up a peace sign.

"I'm assuming you didn't stop by just to be reminded about your own name, so whats up?" She doubts he came here just to say hi, of all things.

"Well," he says, glancing at the girls while his hands slide into his jean pockets. " I found myself craving korean food and remembered you mentioning a place nearby."

Mindy's brain blanks out for a bit and she can feel both her interns staring at her.

"You wanna show me the place later?" He says, giving her a smile thats weirdly equal parts unsure and confident.

"Sure." She says because really what else was she gonna say, "I'm always up for bulgogi, and theirs is pretty bitchin."

"Cool, cool." He says and they exchange numbers and she can feel her interns staring at her despite hearing the clicking of their keypads.

He leaves with a wave and a smile and she predicts the exact moment Lexi demands and explanation while Susan raises one perfectly executed eye brow at her.

She's going to have to ask her how she does her makeup later, that brow could kill a man.


	4. Chapter 4

" I'm just saying, If Commander Lewis changed her name into something that starts with an S." Mark tells her " She could call herself C.S Lewis."

"Susan would be first choice obviously," Mindy replies.

"I'm guessing you call your intern Pevensie?" Mark says with a grin.

"As much as I possibly can."

"Then we'd have two Susans." He says thoughtfully. " I'm thinking something less obvious, like Sauron."

Before she can even formulate a reply to that their food is being served and they proceed to dig in, the food is just way too good to wait even a little bit.

"You weren't kidding, this is literally the best bulgogi I have ever had." Mark says as he takes another bite.

"It really is." Mindy stares at her delicious, wonderful plate. "If I could, I would start a new religion centered around this bulgogi."

"Ooooh!" Mark forks another piece of beef. "I can be your first convert."

Mindy snorts, she's glad to see that despite everything, Mark's sense of humor remains intact.

Which really, she had already know that when she acted at his outer space baby sitter, well, one of his outer space baby sitters.

She should get the calling cards of every individual who brought Mark home, they'd make the absolute best babysitting company ever.

"So," Mark starts, bless him, this friendship is new despite the history they have and the hallway meet ups " Mindy Park, I haven't actually officially thanked you for, you know, everything."

Well, that wasn't what she expected.

"Official ? This doesn't require any paperwork does it?" Humor, nice deflecting there Park.

"Oh god no," He mock glares at her " It's just I did a lot of thanking and hugging those first few weeks to a lot of people who all deserved it, somehow I managed to miss you, sorry about that."

He gives her a small smile, it's unsure and a little ( very) endearing.

"Hey, it's cool," she says because really, what is she supposed to say? " to be fair, I was on vacation trying to recover from living with a Mars body clock after baby sitting you all the time"

She hopes talking about this isn't too weird for him, he's got a smile on his though, probably because of the word baby sitting.

"Baby sitting?" Bingo. " making sure I don't stay past my Mars bedtime?"

"Ugh, now you're just making me sound old." Why is she even talking about having baby sat a man older than her to his face, what is her life.

He has this look on his face that makes Mindy think he's trying to wrap his mind around something, probably the sheer amount of effort people put into saving him.

Heavy stuff.

She grabs two forks from the utensil jar on the table and spears a single piece of meat unto each one before recreating the famous fork dance.

Mark stares at her in surprise before bursting into laughter.

She's not the best at this sort of thing but they're kind of friends now.

"Is that how this new religion goes? Recreating classic pop culture scenes?" He asks with a smile.

"It's my religion, I can do whatever I want with it."

Mark grabs another pair of forks and recreates the same thing, only he does it way better than she could and she's a little offended about that but she's laughing to hard to be able to show her displeasure properly so it really doesn't matter in the end.


	5. Chapter 5

" We should totally have a sign on our door."

"And just what would that name be?" Mindy asks despite Susan's grunts of protest.

"Mar's Intrepid Satellite Squad." Lexi grins at them and Mindy wonders how long she's been thinking about this. "We can shorten in to M.I.S.S of course."

"Oh God," Susan says, but there's a small smile on her face and Mindy stores that into her brain to analyze later.

"Why do I have a feeling you already made this sign?" Mindy deadpans because really they all know the answer to that.

Lexi Rodriguez who's twirling her lavender colored hair in mock innocence. Mindy knows she can never trust that look. She pulls something out from under her desk and presents it to them.

"Behold!"

"I'm beholding it alright." Susan says but Mindy can hear appreciation in her voice.

It's one of those wooden signs with rope, printed on top of it are the words "Mar's Intrepid Satellite Squad". There was a small rectangle of white board material underneath it where Lexi already doodled cartoon caricatures of the three of them.

"That's adorable," Lexi hands it over to her and Mindy is once again thankful she managed to bully Venkat into getting her female interns. "I'll hang it on our door."

"I'm surprised you managed to go through most of the day without telling us." Susan says, raising one perfect eyebrow.

"I used up all my patience for the week," Lexi replies ." Which means I can finally ask Mindy about her date with Mark."

"Ugh no," Mindy scrunches her face at her. "We're just friends, heck we only just recently passed the Small Talk at The Hallway stage."

After going out for Korean a week ago they started some good natured friendly texting. ( They were currently texting each other about super power limitations but Lexi didn't need to know that.) Not exactly romance novel material. Not that she expected it to be more.

"Then what's with the fancier than usual outfit you got on?" Susan makes a vague hand gesture. " you don't usually show up to work in a black dress and you're wearing black tights."

"I try to dress up for you guys just once." Mindy dead pans. "And this is how you treat me? I'm never wearing my cute outfits for you ever again. It'll be sweaters forever."

Sweaters and hoodies were are clearly the superior clothing choice.

" it's a good look." Lexi says. "very Audrey Hepburn, but with glasses."

"I've always wanted to be the next Korean Audrey Hepburn." Mindy sighs dramatically. "And to answer your question Susan, I'm meeting my non NASA friends later and I really am too lazy to bring another outfit."

"Oh smart move, I hate changing in workplace bathrooms." Lexi gives her a thumbs up. " Cute shoes too."

Later, after she bids her interns goodbye and hangs their new sign up she bumps into the boss man and an old friend.

"Hey, Team Mars!" She greets Venkat and Rich with a smile. There are some experiences you can't share without ending up liking each other, saving a guy on mars was one of them.

"I remember when you were shy." Venkat tells her and at this point it's become his new hello.

"Going out tonight?" Rich asks her, no doubt taking note of her definitely not a hoodie clothing choice.

Before she can answer she hears a very familiar laugh coming from the opposite end of the hall and sure enough Mark Watney is there surrounded by his fellow astronaut friends.

They're all laughing at Mindy can really feel how tight knit and close they all are.

"Gotta take a break from all that space paparazzi work." She laughs and send the other members of Team Mars on their way before exiting this suddenly crowded hallway herself.

"Hey, Mindy!" Mark calls with a smile before she can pass them. "You look good today."

He has look on his face that she can't quite place, probably because she isn't in her usual "comfort clothing ".

"Hi?" She says and hates how it sounds like a question but these people are something else. Martinez has his arm around Mark's shoulder, partners in crime of course. Beck and Johanssen are holding hands and looking _adorable_ together. Vogel just kinda has this aura of cool.

Commander Lewis is even more badass in person.

Luckily Mark quickly makes the needed introductions before any dead air occurs.

"Mars hasn't totally destroyed my manners." He says "No matter what Mother Hen Commander Lewis says."

The Ares 3 crew make various noises of what Mindy thinks might probably be agreement.

"Ignore Mark," Commander Lewis says and oh god she just made eye contact with her. " He likes to pretend he's more charming than he really is. It's nice to meet you Mindy."

"Charming pain in my ass." Martinez says and Mark looks at him in equal parts annoyance and glee.

Mindy doesn't know why but she feels like someone just put a spotlight on her and is feeling at least twenty different levels of embarrassment.

"It's nice meeting you all too," She says " Glad to meet the crew that kept Mark out of trouble on the way back."

"Easier said than done." Lewis says and Mindy is very glad Mark has such good friends.

"Well, I gotta head out." She says because she doesn't want to keep her friends waiting and she also kinda feels like she's intruding on a moment here.

" Bye guys," she tells them. " Happy treasure hunting Captain Blondebeard."

She doesn't catch the surprised look Mark sends her way, or the teasing looks and knowing smiles the Ares 3 crew members send Mark's way.


End file.
